A Lesson in Shape-shifting
by OT6AllTheWay-BCNSTT
Summary: Shape-Shifters have always been viewed as animals. It wasn't until recently that they began to gain rights and respect. A look through the life of A Shifter and his human. And the close bond they share


DISCLAIMER: I do not own Thor, Iron Man or any marvel franchise.

I came up with this idea from my prompt at Avenger Kink Meme and it kind of ballooned out. I have been working on this for a while, which is why Pack of Six is been on the back burners. Sorry about that.

This is only a small section of what I have written and I decided to post part of it to see what people think.

Don't hold back.

EDIT 4/12/14: So when I tried to upload my story it wouldn't search my desktop and so had to copy and paste it. Apparently when I did that it cut out a big chunk of it. So I went back and added it.

* * *

For as long as human history has been recorded, mankind has always been separated into two classes. Not man or woman, not rich or poor, but Human and Shape-shifter. No one is for certain who the very first Shape-shifter was. Only that the first records were found in Egypt; depicting Humans rule over the Shape-Shifters. Depicting abuse of the Shifters at the Humans command.

As mankind aged, Shape-Shifter or Shifters began to gain some rights, while at the same time continually being viewed as animals. No longer slaves to be kicked around, now Humans began to keep them as pets. Showing off the more rare and wild Shifters, while the domestic ones became guardians or means of transportation.

As times changed so did the laws. It quickly became mandatory to provide proper shelter, food, and water. Many organizations, including the SPCS; the Society for the Prevention of cruelty to Shifters, opened up their doors to not only enforce the law but to provide a roof to those that didn't have a home.

As more and more Shifters went from slaves to household pets, many Humans began the act of breeding. Most picking their most exotic and hoping to make millions. Though few good men and women were in the business for the sole reason of bettering 'their breed'.

Bor's Kennel was created back in 1975, when he only wanted a Golden Shape-Shifter that was not only a healthy pup; but a healthy and happy human. Every breeder he visited kept them in tiny runs and never cared for the health of their animals. Never mind their human side.

Mad at the world, and wanting to do something, he created his own kennel. Dedicated to not only breeding, but educating the world. He wanted everyone to see that treating them like property was not the way to go. That their generation was suppose to improve the world, not repeat history.

He started with Bella, a Golden Retriever Shifter and Jake a Red Heeler Shifter. While in their dog forms they had state of the art kennels. Complete with a big comfy bed, 24 hour access to food and water, and acres to run around. While in human form, they had run of the house, with a few rules set in place, and spent most of the day playing with his five year old son.

When people caught wind of the they scoffed at him. Said that they were animals not people. That if you continued to treat them as his kids they would get confused. He simply turned his nose and walked on.

And though the pessimists were partly correct that the two children didn't view the world the same as their relatives, nothing changed the fact that part of their psychology did in fact behave and think like that of their animal counterpart.

And though as they got older and spent less time as humans, it wasn't unheard of for Bella and Jake to be seen eating at the kitchen table with Theodore and his family. The rest of the day they spent in their dog forms.

The only other exception, besides breakfast time, was when Jake got Bella pregnant. It was common knowledge that Shifters bred in their human form and that it wasn't unheard of for two Shifters to produce a Human. Not only that but unlike Humans who normally had one baby, Shifters usually had two or more.

Bella and Jakes first litter she gave birth to two girls and one boy. One girl was canine, one was feline and the boy was pure Human. Her two other litters with different males produced larger litters with all Shifters. While Jake had a habit of producing small litters with Humans thrown in the mix.

Bella lived to be 30 while Jake made it to 45. As a mixture of canine and human, they adhere to either standard. And lived shorter than Humans but longer than a normal canine. In fact, 30-50 is the average for a canine Shifter. Each form of Shiftedr is different. In the case of animals that live to be a hundredm like turtles, the Shifters could outlive their humans.

As time moved on, many breeders took his philosophy and he made great relationships with others, occasionally swapping one of his offspring for one of theirs.

And as such his kennel grew from a small hobby of his to a booming buisness, with three seperate kennels; for the females, for the males, and the breeding kennels, each with over a hundred runs. Each also providing a job to anyone willing to work.

Bor passed his passion on to his son Odin. Just like his father, from a early age, Odin would help out taking care of the Shifters in their care. At Odins eighteenth birthday he was gifted with a Rottweiler Shifter born from the kennel.

He too grew up, married and had two sons, Thor and Loki. Odin and is wife Frigga raised their sons in the kennels. Just like their father, they helped out where they could.

Loki, the youngest of the two, was the one who fell in love with the misfits. If they had any kind of abnormalty or if for some reason, the mom abandonded them, Loki fell in love. If they were abandond, they could always count on Loki taking care of them. Atleast until the kid was old enough to find a new home. Then Loki was off finding a new favorite.

Thor was a differnt story. He didnt just wanted to take care of a kid, then when he gets bored, replace them. He wanted a companion for life. He helped take care of the moms and their kids, but his parents agreed to wait until his 18th birthday until he can get his very own pup.

Eventually his 18th birthday came, and keeping their promise, they gifted him with a blue heeler puppy. Thor had figured the pup would be from his own kennel, but he hadn't recognized the pup and it was his dad that said Howard Stark was giving this pup to him as a birthday gift.

The pups was destined for greatness, as both his father and mother were not only greatly intelligent, but very loyal and loving. Howard had admitted to not wanting to give this pup up, but claimed he owed the Odinssons for giving him one of their own champions and knew that Thor would treat him right.

All Shifters tend to take the temperament of their animal form even when in their human form. For instance wolf Shifters tend to be pack oriented and cause all kinds of trouble until they know where they stand, big cat Shifters are known to be independent and love you best when you leave them alone and Bird Shifters are more likely to run when not given enough room.

Tony; named after the city San Antonio and because both parents had names of cities, promptly fit that of a cattle dog. He is very high energy, never happy unless he had a job to do, very protective of Thor and his family and loyal down to the bone.

He and Thor hit it off right away and were inseparable. The house rule was no animals on the beds, so Tony got his own bed at the foot of Thors, or if Thor had friends over, then Tony would hide in his kennel tucked away in a corner.

Every morning Thor would go lend a hand in the kennels and Tony would be right behind him, helping him in whatever way he could. But no matter how close the two were, Thor never once saw Tony's human form. Most child shifters would shift back and forth countless times a day. It was unheard of to not even know what you shifters looked like as a human.

No one seemed to have a way to fix it though, and Thor had asked everyone. It was no question if Tony was loved for. Anyone with eyes could tell, but he seemed like he was determined to stay canine.

Thor tried everything under the sun and in the end decided to just give it time. Sure enough everything changed in a instant. Thor had been woken up, by what, he wasn't sure. All he knew was it was 4 am and he was having trouble falling asleep.

Just as he went to close his eyes, he heard it again, a whimper. Almost canine. Alarmed Thor got up and crawled to the end of the bed to check on Tony. Only it wasn't his loyal canine he saw, there was a small little boy tossing in turning right where Tony usually slept.

It took longer than Thor is willing to admit to put two and two together. He was finally seeing Tony as he really is. The boys curly chocolate hair was sticking to his forehead. His whole face was shiny with sweat and the kid continually tossed and turned, unable to find a comfortable position.

Thor quietly climbed down to Tony's level and placed on giant hand onto the smaller boys forehead. The heat radiation of his skin worried Thor. He has never before dealt with taking care of a sick loved one. But he does remember his mom taking care of Loki and himself.

He remembers the higher his temp got the colder he felt. So he wrapped Tony up in his discarded blankets ran to the bathroom and wet a wash cloth. He slipped next to Tony and gently washed away the sweat from the boys face.

Thor wasn't sure how long he sat there calmly talking to his boy as he washed the sweat off the available skin. But suddenly Frigga was kneeling next to him smiling sadly down at Tony.

"My poor boy, how long has he been sick."

"Not sure, I woke up to him tossing and turning. That was" he turns to look at the clock and noticed it was nearly six. Two hours flew by and he didn't even notice "nearly two hours ago."

After that his mother had popped a thermometer into Tony's mouth, frowned at the 102 temp, tucked him back in and pulled Thor down for breakfast.


End file.
